1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for trading credit or the types of currency in exchange for goods or services. In particular, the present invention provides a means to robustly track the exchange of credit and support multiparty exchanges wherein participants in the exchange may collectively or individually redeem credits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing currency systems are not well-suited to multiparty transactions or transactions that extend across a range of time. Existing currencies presuppose individual ownership of the currency such that physical possession of a currency token is sufficient to trade, redeem and otherwise control that unit of currency. Furthermore, currency exchanges do not maintain a history. Given an individual unit of currency it is generally impossible to follow the trading history for that specific unit of currency. These properties imply that some of the individuals in multiparty transactions or transactions that extend over a range of time bear some risk that one of the other parties will abscond with the currency.
To overcome these limitations, people may employ cumbersome escrow institutions and contracts. Including these third-party institutions in a transaction is expensive, inefficient, and inappropriate for everyday use.
Therefore what is needed is a system and methods for exchanging, sharing, and redeeming credits that overcomes the limitations of existing systems and efficiently supports multiparty and extended transactions.